Resisting Temptation is All in the Sugar

Filed in archive Notable , Research on December 5, 2007

Sugar, in the form of glucose literally fuels self-control - thereby if we lose the sugar, say during exercise (when sugar is depleted), we tend to lose Self Control and behave badly or not be able to resist temptation - subsequent efforts at self control become more difficult.

Such were the findings of a new research from a lab at Florida State University.

Florida State psychologist Roy F. Baumeister and his colleagues Kathleen D. Vohs, University of Minnesota, and Dianne M. Tice, Florida State, showed this with an experiment using the Stroop task, a famous way of testing strength of self-control.

Participants in this task are shown color words that are printed in different-colored ink (like the word red printed in blue font), and are told to name the color of the ink, not the word. Baumeister found that when participants perform multiple self-control tasks like the Stroop test in a row, they do worse over time. Thus, the ability to control ourselves wanes as it is exercised.

Moreover, Baumeister and colleagues found that the fuel that powers this ability turns out to be one of the same things that fuels our muscles: sugar, in the form of glucose.

What of diabetics who have to manage their sugar? Does it follow that because diabetics whose goal is to lower their blood sugar levels has less self-control?

Find more details from Association of Psychological Science.